Tag Archives: Bible promises

Recently I spent some time meditating on the Ark of the Covenant and its significance to New Testament believers. It is also referred to as the Ark of Promise, the Ark of Agreement, the Ark of His Presence, and the Ark of Testimony.

For those of you who may not be familiar with the Ark, it was the symbol and manifestation of God’s Presence among His people Israel in Old Testament times. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest entered the Holy of Holies to apply blood from an animal sacrifice to the mercy seat which covered the Ark, thereby covering the sins of the people from God’s sight by that blood for another year (Exodus 25:10-22 and Leviticus 16).

The tabernacle (later, the temple) and the Ark of the Covenant within it were earthly patterns of a temple which exists in heaven. Hebrews 9:1-10:22 tells us that Jesus, the High Priest of the New Covenant, entered the Holy of Holies in the heavenly temple and sprinkled His own blood upon the mercy seat there, so that our sins are forever atoned for and never need another sacrifice made for them.

Today, we who believe on Jesus are living temples of His Presence, fully washed in Jesus’ blood, with the Holy Spirit continually abiding in us, as God’s Presence once abode, via the Ark, in the physical tabernacle / temple of old.

As I thought on these things, I prayed, “Lord, make me an ark of Your covenant, an ark of Your Presence. Let the covenant provisions, which I have with You through Jesus’ blood, be visible to others, so that I am also an ark of testimony to Your goodness.”

I realized that when we petition God for healing or any other provision of our covenant with Him, it’s not about getting Him to agree with us for it. No, we are to agree with HIM for what He has already said He will do for us.

The shift in how we pray and believe is tremendous. When we feel we must get Him to agree with us, we try to twist His arm to do what we want, and we’re never quite sure we’ll succeed in persuading Him. But when we say, “Lord, I agree with You for the healing (or other provision) You have already promised to me in Your covenant,” we are coming into unity with Him. We don’t have to convince Him; He’s already there waiting for us to ask.

What has God given us as part of our New Testament covenant with Him? Any promise God made in His Word is included. Salvation, deliverance, healing, protection, financial provision, peace, joy, and wisdom are just a few. It’s time we inform ourselves of what is in the contract! Partaking of the covenant provisions is honoring to the Lord. When they become our daily reality, we are a living testimony of His goodness to the unsaved people around us.

So Lord, give me ever-increasing understanding of how to live as an ark of Your covenant. Make me an ark of agreement with You, a living ark of Your Presence, and an ark of testimony to the world around me, so that they will be drawn to You.

Several months ago, the Lord said to me, “Let the Word of God speak for you.” At the time, it wasn’t clear to me exactly how to apply it, but He has continued to remind me of that word and to give me understanding of it.

Here are some ways He is showing me to live it out:

1.) I let the word of God speak for me in prayer. Reading the Bible consistently and becoming familiar with it is a good thing! But we can get to a place where we know the principles in it so well that we pray from our knowledge of what it says without actually praying specific verses to press our point. We paraphrase the Word in our prayers — sometimes quite loosely.

The Lord has been prompting me to slow down in prayer, take the time to look up the actual verses which pertain to what I am asking for, and pray the words of Scripture as my petition. I read the verse to the Lord and then pray it for my particular need. From there, He often brings to mind another verse which expands on the thought, so I look up that verse, and continue on in prayer with it. I expand on what I am praying by interjecting my own thoughts too, but I start with Scripture and keep close to it.

This isn’t the only way I pray, but it is something I am trying to do more of. It is more work to deliberately open the Bible and pray directly from it than it is to just loosely pray the concepts in it. But, I am noticing that when I do pray Scripture directly, I often feel the presence of the Lord intensely all around me. He loves to hear us pray His own words! And I know my prayers are in alignment with His will. There is great, great power in praying the Word.

2.) I let the word of God speak for me in what I say in everyday speech. We all say things at times about ourselves and others which line up with how we feel in the given moment, but which are at cross-purposes with what God desires for us or the people He has put in our lives: “I do such stupid things all the time.” “So-and-so is not qualified for _______.” “Just give me the gold medal for being the world’s biggest klutz.”

I used to frequently joke about being spiritually obtuse or being a “spiritual pygmy,” because I was afraid I did not possess the prophetic abilities of many other intercessors in my acquaintance. Joking about it was a defense mechanism of sorts against my feelings of inadequacy.

But the day came when the Holy Spirit firmly spoke, “I want you to stop saying that.” I suddenly realized that I had been hindering my own ability to hear and see prophetically by my wrong declaration and twisted perception of myself. I was opposing the truth of John 8:47, “He who is of God hears God’s words.”

Now, I try to be more careful to say what God has spoken over my life — not what I might feel, or even the negative things some people have said. This goes for both personal words I have received from Him and Scripture promises.

The Lord wants us to quite simply let Scripture be our defense against whatever may assail us in our

health

relationships

finances

emotions

talents

business abilities

ministry (etc.)

Declaring what the Bible says in our everyday speech, and refraining from speaking contrary to it, takes effort. Circumstances don’t always change overnight. Negative perceptions about ourselves (or others) don’t usually go away immediately. They are strongholds of the mind which must be torn down brick by brick. The Word of God is the spiritual weapon we use for the dismantling process.

This is an area where I have a lot of growing to do yet, but at least I am becoming more aware of how I need to do things differently. I am learning to editorialize less on how the circumstances look and to speak God’s will as communicated in Scripture instead. The Word of God is powerful to bring changes to us and our circumstances, if we will purposefully declare it over ourselves and over whatever might be happening to us.

Let the Word of God speak for you.

__________________________

Do you need help finding Bible verses which apply to your petitions? Lee Ann’s book, The Intercessor’s Companion, is a good place to start. It is a compilation of verses arranged by topics. Available in paperback, e-book, and audiobook formats.

The Son

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. — John 1:1-3

John’s gospel reveals Jesus to us as the Word. Why? By using this name for Jesus, God is essentially saying, “Jesus and My Word are one. The two cannot be separated.” This is why there is so much power in speaking forth the words in the Bible. This is why devils tremble and flee when we authoritatively speak Scripture as a weapon of our spiritual warfare. When the powers of darkness hear the Word, they understand that that Word packs the very essence of Jesus Himself, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. The Word carries all the backing of Almighty God. If only we would as fully understand this as the devils do!

There are many places in the Bible where we are assured that God’s Word is infallibly true. Jesus, in praying to the Father, said of the Scriptures, “Your word is truth” (John 17:17). Revelation 19:11 gives Jesus the title, “Faithful and True.” Jesus the Word and any word that He speaks cannot be divided from each other. Jesus’ nature is to be faithful and true; His Word is also declared to be true.

What this means for us is that when we have a promise from God — either in the Bible or a personal promise that He has bestowed upon us — we can trust that our Promise-Giver will do for us what He said He would do — because He IS The Word. He and His promises are one. To renege on a promise would be to deny Himself, to violate His own nature, and 2 Timothy 2:13 assures us, “If we do not believe, yet he continues faithful: he cannot deny himself.” We must be careful to make sure our personal promises are really from the Lord and that we are not adding to them, because we can make mistakes in our hearing. We must also be careful not to misinterpret Scripture. But when we’ve got a word genuinely spoken by the Lord, we can completely rest in Jesus the Word to perform what He has said.

The Intercessor Manual — Everything (at least, all I could think of) you would want to know about intercession, jam-packed into one book.

Hotline to Heaven: Hearing the Voice of God — Simple, practical info to help you hear God better and more often. This book is also fully included in The Intercessor Manual, so if you get the manual, you won’t need this version, but if you just want the hearing God info without all the intercessor stuff, this is for you.

How to Pray and Read the Bible— For new believers and for the Christian who has struggled with maintaining consistent prayer and Bible reading habits — practical tips to get you started and to keep you going in consistent prayer and Bible-reading habits.

The Names of God— We have had over 1,000,000 visitors to our free list on our web page. The web page doesn’t have the Bible references — but this book does! Use the Names of God in worship and to increase your understanding of the nature of our wonderful Lord.

God’s Word on Healing — God still heals today, and this small booklet will help. Many times, when we are in the midst of a crisis, it is hard to find where the Bible verses are which apply to our situation. That’s why I have compiled for you healing Scriptures to build your faith, encourage you, and for you to use as a powerful tool to gain your health victory.

Encouragement from God’s Word — When praying through difficult circumstances, sometimes it is hard to find where the particular Bible verses are that speak into our situation. This nineteen-topic book puts the Scriptures (KJV) you need at your fingertips. Many of your questions about God’s nature and how He operates toward us will be answered as well.

The Intercessor’s Companion — This is a much-expanded version of our popular Encouragement from God’s Word. We’ve added ten more topics of particular interest to intercessors, along with insightful commentary at the beginning of each topic, and we’ve redone the Bible verses in a modernized rendition of the KJV for easier reading.

Available at the following locations (and you can download samples there, too!):